ISIS Email Demanded Release Of Neuroscientist From Texas Jail

UNDATED: This undated FBI handout photo shows Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman who at one time studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced on May 26, 2004 that Siddiqui is being pursued by the FBI for questioning about possible contacts with al-Qaida. (credit: FBI via Getty Images)

ROCHESTER, N.H. (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — The parents of slain journalist James Foley say they regarded an email they received from his captors last week as a hopeful sign they could negotiate with Islamic militants.

Among their vast list of demands, terrorists asked for the liberation of Aafia Siddiqui, an M.I.T.-trained Pakistani neuroscientist with ties to Al Qaeda. She is currently incarcerated in Texas’ Carswell federal prison.

Foley’s Islamic State captors had demanded $132.5 million from his parents and political concessions from Washington. Authorities say neither obliged. The militants revealed Foley’s death in a video released Tuesday.

Speaking on NBC’s “Today” John and Diane Foley from Rochester, New Hampshire, said they had last heard from the captors via several emails in December. They say they set up a special email address and sent multiple messages to try to engage them.

John Foley said he was excited to see the latest email, even though it threatened execution. He says he had hoped they would be able to negotiate with the captors.

Militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria called Foley’s murder a revenge killing for the ongoing U.S. air strikes in Iraq.